


A Guide on How to Hunt Ducklings

by worldtravellingfly



Series: Ceia, Empty, & Fly’s SIs [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Era, Canon-Typical Violence, Don’t copy to another site, Fanart Welcome, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Not Canon Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Plastic Flamingos, Podfic Welcome, Reincarnation, Self-Insert, different POVs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:02:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22058983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/worldtravellingfly/pseuds/worldtravellingfly
Summary: A Guide on How to Hunt Ducklings. (Success not guaranteed.) Side Effects may include, but are not limited to: awkward clan relationships, taking up a new hobby or ten, and making yourself unpopular.
Relationships: Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Series: Ceia, Empty, & Fly’s SIs [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1587682
Comments: 9
Kudos: 213





	A Guide on How to Hunt Ducklings

**Author's Note:**

> No copyright infringement intended. 
> 
> Ceia, Empty, and I (Fly) have dipped our toes into the HP fandom with a triple SI before, but this time we’re taking on Naruto. Please enjoy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hitomi leaves, Ran arrives. It’s very confusing.

#  **1**

She knew she wasn’t home when she woke up. It was the scent, the temperature, the light - and she couldn’t feel the little depression in her mattress her body had imprinted there over the years.

This wasn’t her cozy little room in the student dorms. Neither was it her room back at her mother’s house.

She felt _wretched_ . Weak, nauseous, achy all over, and there was something _wrong_ with her. Her body was - it felt off. _Really_ off, and somehow it was like there was molten lava running through her body, except it didn’t hurt, it just _burned_. It couldn’t be a fever, she didn’t feel feverish at all.

Forcing her eyes to open felt like a monumental task. When she was younger, she used to have nightmares about her eyelids being too heavy to open after waking up. _Refusing_ to open, even if she used her hands to pry them apart, and if she managed it, they’d fall shut instantly.

Opening her eyes now was a little like that.

She supposed it made sense that she was in a hospital. Must have caught some bug and been transferred there. The last thing she remembered was going to bed late after staying up long to write, swallowing a pill for the headache she’d been suffering from due to - probably - not drinking enough.

Whatever had been wrong with her must’ve caused her roommate to call in an emergency at the hospital.

Embarrassing, that. She never wore much to sleep. At least she could comfort herself with the knowledge that she had nothing a doctor wouldn’t have seen a million times before.

Still.

The light stung in her eyes, and her mouth produced a soft sound of discomfort.

“Hitomi?”

It was an unfamiliar voice that uttered the odd word. It came from next to her bed. She turned her head slowly. It was a boy, sitting in a chair nearby. A beautiful child, but he looked like he’d been sitting there for days. His skin was pasty and there were dark shadows under his eyes. Hair and clothes were a mess, and she wondered how he wasn’t cold, in those shorts he was wearing.

“Are you okay?” she asked, or tried to, but the words came out a garbled mess. Her throat was very dry.

The boy understood her anyway, but she only got a shrug as an answer and a glass of water held out to her. She tried to sit up and only half-succeeded, leaning on her elbow instead.

The glass slipped through her fingers, but the boy had reflexes that were out of this world, and snatched it before it was even close to hitting the ground. Not a drop of water was spilled. She stared in awe.

He held the glass to her lips and she drank greedily. Maybe too greedily, since she ended up coughing and spitting water all over the boy’s hands. “Sorry,” she said, mortified.

The boy shrugged uncomfortably, wiping his hand on the blue sweater he was wearing. It looks a little too big on him. She wasn't judging - she too preferred her sweaters a size too big. It was comfy that way, and nobody could see if she was wearing a bra or not.

She wasn't wearing a bra right now. Just a hospital gown, and she’d never been hospitalised before, so the confirmation that hospital gowns were truly that awful came with mild surprise. Drowned out soon by the fact that her body - her body didn’t just _feel_ wrong.

It _was_ wrong. Her skin wasn't this pale. She wasn't this - _this_.

She wasn't a _child_ , her hands weren’t this small, and there _certainly_ shouldn’t be faded scars criss-crossing over the inside of her wrist, nor should there be a fresh thin scar down the length of her forearm, right? “Oh,” she breathed.

The implication here was clear. She knew what these scars meant, thanks to her old piano teacher who more often than not had ended up chatting with her about anything under the sun rather than actually playing the piano. In retrospect, how to suicide properly was definitely a rather inappropriate topic to discuss with a teenager.

So. Her eyes were telling her that she was in the body of a kid who had tried to kill herself.

That. She registered the fact blankly. There was panic, the paralysing kind, rising in her, but. A kid was watching. She was - if it were an adult, she’d have had no problem breaking down right then and having someone pity her and hug her or try to calm her down. But it was _not_ an adult, and the last thing she wanted was the kid panicking.

He was sneering at her now. “ _Oh?_ ” he repeated mockingly. “That’s all?”

She blinked at him helplessly. “I…” her voice trailed off. 

The kid must be here because he was family or something like that. She _couldn’t_ tell him that she wasn't - Hitomi? Was that what he called her? - he was a _kid_ and you didn’t tell kids things like that, especially one that looked so at the end of his tether. “I don’t know,” she finished lamely.

The boy glared at her. Stood abruptly. “I’m getting the medic.”

He stalked out of the room. Soon, a man and a woman entered. She stared because - they looked _odd_. The woman’s hair was a dark blue. It was lovely and seemed completely natural, but it was definitely odd coupled with the nurse uniform she was sporting. And the man had long blond hair and lacked pupils.

Somehow, that struck her as weirder than the whole being in the wrong body thing.

Still - adults! She felt better instantly. “Hello,” she said.

“Good morning, Hitomi-chan!” the woman greeted cheerfully. “We’ll have you right as rain in no time, don’t you worry, dear!” She tutted. “Leaving you poor children to live alone in that place, why, no _wonder_ you had such an awful accident - we’ll make sure you’re well-taken care of from now on.” A beaming smile. 

The way she talked was cringe-inducing. Also, _accident?_ She tried not to let the disbelief show on her face.

“Manami-san,” the man interjected calmly.

“Oh, right!” The woman bustled over and reached out with her hands. Green light gathered around them.

She flinched back, a startled, frightened noise escaping her. The woman snatched her hands back instantly, regret on her face. “I’m sorry-”

“Please send in another nurse,” the man ordered her, frowning heavily.

“I just thought - she’s just a little girl-”

“ _Now,_ ” the man ordered.

The nurse swallowed and hurried out. 

The man breathed out heavily. “Uchiha-san,” he said calmly, eyeing her heaving chest and empty stare where the nurse had been using _magic_.

She startled out of her stupor. “Uchiha?”

“Would you prefer to be addressed otherwise?” he asked.

“I - my name is-”

Her fingers clenched in her thin gown. Her breath came faster again. Oh no. _Oh no_. 

_What was her name?_

“I’m-” she forced out, and couldn’t continue. And now her eyes were filling with tears. “I don’t- I can’t _remember,_ but - but I know it meant _orchid_ and - and that boy, who was he, and I don’t - is- what’s going _on?_ I want to go _home_ . _”_

She was sobbing by the end of it, hunched over and crying into too-tiny and too-pale hands.

The man came closer after a long moment, knelt by her side. “You are Uchiha Hitomi, and you are currently in the hospital of Konohagakure no Sato,” he told her solemnly. “You are nine years old. The boy who left is your clan member Sasuke. Three days ago, he found you injured and had you admitted into the hospital.”

Oh.

 _Oh_.

The realisation shocked her out of her crying fit.

Oh _no_.

.

The man’s name was Yamanaka Tetsuya and she’d decided she liked him. She was pretty sure someone else came into the room at some point, but he sent them out and let her cry herself out until she was too exhausted to continue.

“What’s going on?” she rasped by the end of it. “I don’t - this isn’t-” she gestured down at herself.

She wasn't this - this _creature_ , and she wanted out, wanted to be _home_.

Tetsuya regarded her gravely. He’d listened to her rambled and sobbed explanations, had asked a few questions in between, and he hadn’t called her crazy once.

She figured it was because him being a Yamanaka meant he’d seen some crazy shit. And holy shit, she really didn’t want to unpack the implications of _Yamanaka_ and _Uchiha_.

She’d probably have to, though.

“Uchiha Hitomi,” he said, “Is one of two survivors of the massacre of her clan.”

She stared at him. It didn’t make _sense_ . There was only Sasuke who survived Itachi’s (and Obito’s, she supposed) slaughter. A _Hitomi_ never appeared in the manga.

This was probably all a grand fever-dream.

The alternative was too ridiculous and too _scary_ to contemplate.

“Hitomi has refused to speak to anyone or leave the house she and Sasuke share ever since. Attempts to question her about what transpired that night have been unsuccessful,” Tetsuya continued. “However, her cousin Sasuke reported that she suffered from night terrors. He himself was placed under a genjutsu the night of the massacre that forced him to witness the deaths of his clansmen repeatedly. I believe that Hitomi must have been placed under something similar.” He looked at her. “Which resulted in _you_.”

She stared back at him. “And you think that I’m… what exactly?”

“I cannot say,” he mused. “You’re not Hitomi. Perhaps you’re a split of her personality, created to protect her. It might just be amnesia, but there are things speaking against that. You could also be a construct forced into Hitomi’s head by Itachi. There is no way to tell.”

“You could look into my head,” she suggested, and stopped herself from saying _please look into my head_.

“Inadvisable. Age and trauma may interfere, and I might cause further damage.”

“I think we’re _way_ past that,” she muttered. “Is there _anything_ else we can do?”

He sighed. “I will have to ask my clan head to assist me.”

She shrugged tiredly. “Fine with me.”

Tetsuya eyed her. “Are you opposed to the name _Hitomi_?”

That was a no-brainer. “Yes.”

She wasn’t that girl.

“You said your name meant orchid. We shall call you _Ran_ , then.”

It was as good as anything.

.

Ran didn’t register much of the mindwalk. It felt like floating, sort of, but also like sleeping.

Neither Tetsuya nor Inoichi had many answers for her afterwards. This was mostly due to the language barrier and the unfamiliar things her mind was filled with.

“We _can_ confirm, however, that you are neither amnesic nor a construct,” Tetsuya concluded. “Nor do you have malicious intentions or hidden orders you might be forced to execute.”

That much was good.

“However,” Inoichi, and she wasn't going to contemplate _that_ one, “We can also confirm that _Hitomi_ is gone. You are the only presence in her mind. There is no way to untether you and get her back. I’m sorry, but it looks like you are here to stay.”

That was less good, and even through the haze the mindwalk had put her in, she could feel the panic at the edge of her mind.

.

A few more days of nurses checking in on her and Tetsuya coming by to talk, and then she - Ran, that was her name now, but she hadn’t given up hope that this wasn’t really permanent or real _-_ was released into the dubious care of Uchiha Sasuke. Her… cousin. Or something? They might have been siblings, there had to be something about Hitomi that made Itachi spare her.

It wasn’t particularly important, she decided.

What was questionable was that they were letting her and Sasuke, two _children_ , go home, to a house with no adults in a district that dozens had been murdered in.

And Sasuke, who looked eight at most - not that she’d ever been good at gauging people’s ages - was supposed to _care_ for her.

That was just _wrong_. It was asking too much of a kid, and Hitomi had clearly been as depressed and traumatised as one would expect, but hadn’t channeled it into rage and vengeance like the Sasuke she remembered from the manga did. Hitomi just wasted away.

She was all too aware of the scars on the wrist that wasn’t really hers.

“How old are you?” she asked him.

Sasuke shot her a glare. “You really don’t remember anything.”

The boy - her clan head, and how ridiculous was _that_ \- had been told that Itachi’s genjutsu had messed Hitomi up long-term and caused a form of amnesia, resulting in a new personality or something. She didn’t understand it all, and she was also pretty sure they weren’t telling her everything. Which was actually fine by her.

“Sorry.” She grimaced. “I can still read, I think?”

Which was weird. She shouldn’t have been able to understand the language and kanji or whatever it was called here. But she was definitely not looking that gift horse in the mouth.

“Almost eight,” Sasuke answered flatly, and Ran winced.

 _Seven_ . That was _nothing_.

They walked in silence until they reached the gate to the Uchiha district. It reminded her sort-of of a gated community (not that she’d ever seen one for herself), but it didn’t seem to be guarded. Ran looked around curiously.

It was surprisingly peaceful, for a place that for all she knew might have been housing dozens of murdered ghosts. But all she saw were empty houses, some of them decently kept, others having plants slowly growing over the walls. The shops they passed were all abandoned, and some even had faded advertisements in their windows still.

There was an eerie beauty to the place.

Sasuke led her to a house on the outskirts of the district. It was surrounded by a large garden full of trees.

It definitely wasn’t his childhood home, she realised with some relief, because she was pretty sure his father was clan head, and someone like that wouldn’t have lived in such a secluded place, right?

And his parents’ death had actually been _shown_. If she’d had to live there, she’d have looked for the bloodstains every day. It would’ve been uncomfortable, to say the least.

When they entered, she recognised the musty scent of an old house, not quite lived-in. It wasn’t unpleasant.

It _was_ pretty gloomy inside, though. Not homely at all.

“Where’s my room?” she asked.

Sasuke gave her a flat stare. “You’re sharing with me,” was all he said. She winced.

After what Hitomi had done - fair enough. If she were Sasuke, she’d want to keep a much closer eye on her, too. Still, it didn’t change that sharing a room on a permanent basis was going to be… uncomfortable.

She’d liked living on her own in the student dorms very much.

“Do I have to?” she asked.

A glare was all he answered with. She took that as a yes and slumped a little.

Well, maybe if Ran managed to convince him she wasn’t going to seclude herself, she’d get her own room at some point. That, or she’d just put her foot down if it _really_ sucked that much to share with him.

(She was _an adult_ , damn it.)

Of all the people to get stuck in, it had to be an Uchiha that _didn’t actually exist_. What was she supposed to do with that?

Sasuke’s stomach took that moment to growl. He flushed and glared at her as if it was her fault.

It was ridiculously adorable.

“Let’s cook,” she grinned. He glared even harder and stomped to the kitchen.

Her new… cousin? Was an angry little gremlin, Ran decided, and the urge to cuddle him was strong.

She had no idea what else to do with children. Then again, it was probably safe to say that none of the normal approaches applied to Uchiha freaking Sasuke.

The kitchen was decently stocked. Boringly so. A bunch of store-bought meals, all looking dreadfully healthy, an amazing abundance of tomatoes, and just… so many healthy things. Nothing _fun_.

Ran would by no means call herself a great cook, but she could follow a recipe just fine. She was just normally too lazy to do anything fancy when the only one to cook for was herself. But now here was a kid who was living off of pre-made meals and tomatoes, and that was just _sad_.

Where was the _chocolate?_ The potato chips?

Oh god, did chocolate even _exist_ here?

The prospect of the answer being no almost sent her into a panic again, which was ridiculous, but _chocolate_ . She wanted to be _home_.

There weren’t a whole lot of options and she had no idea what Sasuke liked to eat (besides tomatoes), but she figured she couldn’t really go wrong with making rice and an omelette.

She’d seriously need to pick up a cookbook, though.

Sasuke watched her every move sharply, and when she made to chop up the vegetables, he snatched the knife from her hand and did it himself. “Thanks,” she said, attempting a smile.

“You’ll chop off your fingers,” he snapped.

She winced. 

Yeah. Her hands were too small and coordinating them in addition to the rest of her body was _challenging_.

“Can you tell me about myself?” she asked hesitantly.

“You don’t do much,” he snorted.

“Yeah, well, but _I_ don’t know that, do I?” she deadpanned. “Amnesiac over here, remember?”

More glaring.

He was so ridiculously cute at this age. 

“Were we friends?” she asked.

He stared at the tomatoes he was chopping. There were definitely hints that he’d snuck some pieces into his mouth. Like the bit of juice sticking to his chin. “Your brother was friends with _him_. So we had to play together sometimes.”

Ran blinked slowly, trying to parse that.

 _Him_ \- Itachi? Who, as far as she knew, only had one friend… _Shisui_.

Shit.

Well, that explained why she was spared. But. That was _terrifying_.

Oh god, was she expected to participate in the revenge plot?! Or, even worse, the clan restoring? Shit, was she supposed to marry Sasuke someday?

Just. _Fuck_.

What the hell was she supposed to do with all this?

“Huh,” was all she said. “Do I have any hobbies?”

“You never even come out of your room.” He glowered accusingly at her.

“But what about school?” she asked in confusion.

Don’t get her wrong, she’d rather avoid that. But that was pretty unrealistic. And it would’ve been even _more_ unrealistic for Hitomi, right? Who was an _actual_ nine year old.

“You don’t want to be a shinobi.”

She stared at him. “But... “ she pointed at herself. “Uchiha?”

“So what?” he snapped. “You don’t want to and that’s that.” Sasuke stabbed the knife into the last tomato for emphasis. Juice sprayed everywhere.

The brat ignored it, daring her to say something about it, a flush rising on his cheeks despite himself.

“Yeah, okay, but that’s stupid,” she argued, looking for something to clean him up with. “I mean, I don’t _want_ to be a shinobi, but you should always know how to defend yourself, and besides, eventually someone’s gonna come for us, right? Because of who we are.”

Weren’t there assholes that tried to steal eyes? Yeah, there definitely were. Not to mention, _Orochimaru_.

Shit, would he come after _her?_

Would he want her _body?_

“I’ll protect you,” he grumbled mulishly, looking to the side, cheeks now well and truly red. “So you don’t have to.”

Oh god.

Too adorable.

“Look at that!” she said in a high-pitched voice. “The rice is done! Hey, where do you keep frying pans?”

In a cupboard too high up for her to reach without a stool, it turned out.

Damn it. She was _way_ too short.

“I should definitely go to school,” she decided when the omelette was cooking. “But probably not just yet. Gotta read… books? And can you show me how to hold shuriken? Also, how the heck to you use chakra?”

She assumed that chakra was the burning stuff in her veins, but so far she hadn’t dared to so much as poke at it. Because. _Terrifying_. What if she exploded?

Sasuke gave her another of those flat stares. “Figure it out yourself.”

How very helpful he was not.

This odd new life of hers wasn’t going to be any fun.

**Author's Note:**

> Can you guess who is who? - Fly


End file.
